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Five Lessons Learned at BlogHer Business 2010

By: Marijean Jaggers | 08/10/2010

Last week I attended BlogHer Business -- the one-day conference offered to women who are, in most cases, professional communicators or those interested in advancing their online presence by learning from those who engage in social media for a living. Some impressive brands were represented at the conference including Pepsi, sharing insights about the Pepsi Refresh project, Estee Lauder discussing World Pink, its breast cancer awareness campaign, Sprint's Momspotting campaign, Discovery Channel, Kodak and Lion Brand yarns.

BlogHer, the full conference of 2,400+ female bloggers gets more attention than the business conference -- and for good reason. There is a lot of power in those numbers and a lot of content produced by all of those women. BlogHer Business, however, is kept to a relatively small 200 or so participants, which keeps the content a bit more focused.

I went to learn and to share, so here are five things I heard while at BlogHer Business that are worth sharing:

1. Facebook is the No. 1 media destination for women. Not television. Not news sites. Facebook. If women are part of your audience, you need to be there, too.
2. A somewhat startling 36 percent of social media users are playing social games; you know, like Farmville and Mafia Wars. Since this has been verified by the likes of the Nielsen folks, I can only assume that the people who claim they "have no time" for other activities are wasting some of it harvesting some virtual crops on Facebook. Why is this relevant and what does this tell us, as marketers? A social game may be the way to reach your customers and may be the place to invest your resources.
3. Big brands (and little ones) still haven't figured out measurement or return on investment (ROI) when it comes to social campaigns. I asked a very specific question about the measurement of a campaign and the expected percentage of growth goal for the coming year's campaign and the brand presenting its campaign could not answer the question. "Raising awareness" isn't enough to show a client that their investment in a social campaign is worth it -- we need to be able to share measurable goals. (This was one of my more disappointed moments at the conference).
4. Blogger outreach can be successful, but one-to-one communication is critical. You have one shot to make your case and the initial outreach should include as much relevant information as possible, including links, images (low-res), a concise overview of your request and external resources/links to support your outreach.
5. Ultimately, any gathering of bloggers and/or communicators holds its worth in the relationships created. Every blogger gathering I've ever attended has resulted in new, valuable and often long-term relationships. I've had the opportunity to both learn and share from those I connected with because of the conference and will continue to do so. 

Would I attend BlogHer Business again? Heck, yes (I would love to be a speaker). I would also love to attend the entire BlogHer conference (in San Diego in 2011). This conference holds the relationships I can't resist and the other blogging women I find so inspirational. Did you attend BlogHer Business? What did you learn?

Posted in Digital Communications